The Importance of Local SEO

Every sixty seconds there are over 571 newly created websites, 72 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube, 278 thousand Tweets and over two million searches on Google.

These astronomical numbers might make you think that your content will be lost in a vast sea, and that you should scale back on content marketing as a lost cause. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. What the numbers do highlight is that your content should be more targeted and specific. Local SEO can help make that a reality.

Every company wants to be found online,ant the internet makes it possible to access global markets. However, sometimes trying to appeal to a wider audience only ends up making your content too generic. This happens when the keywords are not specific, the content is too broad, and the message is too cluttered to make any noticeable impact.

However, local SEO allows you to provide the kind of specific content and information for which your local audience is looking.

Pigeon Forever Changed Local SEO

On July 24th 2014, Google launched one of many algorithm changes. The "Pigeon" algorithm placed greater importance on local SEO. The purpose of the algorithm change was to improve location and distance ranking among search results. This was done to provide users with more accurate results on local-based searches.

So, what do you need to do to make local SEO a pivotal part of any future digital advertising and content marketing strategy?

1. Take Advantage of Local Search Directories

Create uniform location information across all local search directories. Include your company's phone numbers, address, and product and service information. Google+, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp, Facebook, and Angie's List are some of the more popular local search directories. You have a greater chance of generating leads when you have a permanent presence on these directories.

YouTube is the best video-sharing website for local SEO.

2. Focus on Local Content Marketing

Make sure your content appeals to your local market. This goes for your website, individual landing pages, and your content marketing on your social media channel and company blog. Focus on a select group of keywords and conversational keyword-phrases that clearly convey your physical location, while also outlining the local product and services you provide.

3. Include More Videos and Images on Local Directories

Google has also placed greater emphasis on the quality of video and images on local directories. Take images of the inside and outside of your business. Include high-quality images of your product offering. Upload videos to YouTube about your business and its products.

Generating leads comes down to increasing your visibility online. Google owns YouTube, so there is more weight placed on this video-sharing website than others. The more visual your website, the more likely you are to be found within local search results.

You can generate leads by focusing on local SEO. In fact, when you think about it, local SEO provides all the essential information for which local users search. It includes your products, services, location, phone number, and address. Providing this information throughout your website and content will help you generate leads.

To learn more about how ReachForce SmartForms can help you optimize lead generation and improve your impact on revenue, sign up for a free trial and get a demo today.